2044 Wirt

Picture of the Day · NASA

Pathfinder on Mars

2026-07-04

On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.

via NASA APOD

Key facts

Discovered by

C. A. Wirtanen

Discovery site

Lick Obs.

Discovery date

8 November 1950

Named after

Carl Wirtanen , (discoverer himself)

Alternative designations

1950 VE

Minor planet category

Mars-crosser · Phocaea

Observation arc

66.44 yr (24,269 days)

Aphelion

3.1989 AU

Perihelion

1.5634 AU

Semi major axis

2.3812 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.67 yr (1,342 days)

Mean anomaly

53.286 °

Mean motion

0° 16 5.52 / day

Inclination

23.970°

Longitude of ascending node

53.646°

Argument of perihelion

50.474°

Known satellites

1 ( ⌀ : 2 km; p : 19.0 h)

Earth moid

0.6559 AU

via Wikipedia infobox